Method for tissue expansion using pulsatile motion

Abstract

A method of increasing the rate of expansion of tissue area and volume, either in vivo or in vitro, which comprises preparing a tissue for expansion and subjecting the tissue to stretching forces, wherein the stretching forces are alternatively increased and decreased to provide alternating periods of stretch and relax cycles.

What we claim is:  
     
       1. A method of increasing the rate of expansion of tissue area and volume for a given expansion force in a post-operative in vivo tissue expansion process after a balloon tissue expander has been surgically and operably inserted adjacent to a previously intact tissue, which comprises: 
       subjecting said tissue to stretching forces that alternatively increase and decrease over multiple cycles during a period of tissue expansion, wherein said method comprises at least one cycle per day for a period of at least one day.  
     
     
       2. The method of  claim 1 , wherein said stretching forces are reduced during a relax phase to less than 0.9 times the maximum stretching force applied during a stretch phase. 
     
     
       3. The method of  claim 2 , wherein the relax phase has a minimum stretching force of zero. 
     
     
       4. The method of  claim 1 , wherein said intact tissue is a skin or mucosal segment. 
     
     
       5. The method of  claim 4 , wherein intact tissue is a skin segment and said skin segment is human skin. 
     
     
       6. The method of  claim 1 , wherein said tissue is an elongated tissue selected from the group consisting of tendon, ligament, blood vessel, nerve, ureter, and bowel tissue. 
     
     
       7. The method of  claim 6 , wherein said stretching forces stretch said tissue primarily in one dimension. 
     
     
       8. The method of  claim 1 , wherein said method provides a cycle period in a range from 1 cycle per 10 minutes to 50 cycles per minute. 
     
     
       9. The method of  claim 8 , wherein said cycle period is in a range from 1 cycle per minute to 25 cycles per minute. 
     
     
       10. The method of  claim 8 , wherein said cycle period is in a range from 5 cycles per minute to 25 cycles per minute.